The Worth of Ideals
by Nasha Rei-Kun
Summary: A conversation of the past between the men known as James Ironwood and Arthur Watts on the ideals they carry. This is an excerpt from a story I'm writing to semi-completion but wanted to get this out before we learn of Watts ACTUAL previous history. *Excerpt from Atlas Wilds a Naruto/RWBY crossover fic written in the background.


He scrunched his eyes together as the man in front of him paced, his fists were clenched as he glared at the floor.

'Preposterous!' he though as he kept his gaze on the floor.

This whole situation was something he never imagined! How could these idiotic leaders choose _Pietro_'s ideas over his own!

'An android generating its own Aura? Preposterous,' he thought once more.

"Arthur Watts, am I getting through to you?" the man in front of him asked.

"Yes, General Ironwood, I am aware."

The man in front of Arthur sighed, pinching the bridge of nose, white skin creasing, before running his hand through his clean cut, black hair. Blue eyes closed in exasperation and a hand rubbed a square chin.

General James Ironwood was the leader of the Atlas military and headmaster of Atlas Academy, usually seen in his large white, double breasted coat, white pants, and dark boots, a typical military attire.

"You're one of Atlas's brightest minds so why?" round sapphires looked into topaz gems for answers. "You designed the Paladin and helped write most of the machinery code, so why would you go so far? You have most of Atlas tech at your call and could make a variety of new prospects…"

"So _why_ would you want us to experiment on the unknowing populace?!"

Arthur stared at his long-time acquaintance with an impassive gaze. "Yes, the POOR populace who are rotting in the gutters, dirtying the streets, and _dying_ James."

"And you want to shove them into _PALADINS?!_"

"Please!" Arthur chuckled as he grasped his hands behind his back, his orange sweater and dark green slacks straight as his posture. "We both know you want less of your soldiers on the field if you can. So what's the matter in using people no one will care to remember?"

"Ugh! The ethical implications of even _considering_ this idea leaves me with strikes against your personal record!"

Arthur frowned, his caramel skin creasing with the down turn of his lips. "I'm unsure if I'm hearing you correctly, _Ironwood_."

"Don't test me, _Watts_!" the Atlasian general glared. "This isn't the first we've found your suspect experiments."

"Oh I'm sorry," the young man smiled. "You mean that machine _you_ approved of? I do wonder what a machine for moving-"

"Arthur Watts!" the scientist frowned but stopped all the same as he saw James's bared teeth.

"I understand," he said to which the headmaster of Atlas's glared turned into a frown.

"I loved your Grimm energy idea of the past, why change it?"

"Hmm," Watts shrugged. "Grimm are hard to NOT kill as is, add on the fact that most freeze in Atlas meaning we'd have to _import_ Grimm, he, he." He chuckled at the idea.

"Then you have to consider the fact that isolating one Grimm away from the others while trying to capture it is a problematic situation that just isn't financially feasible"

"Hahh," Ironwood sighed. "Arthur, how can you possibly consider using your fellow man as a source of invention?"

"In case you didn't notice, James," Watts frowned and James pinched his nose once more. "We're in a _WAR_ with a threat that had held humanity at bay for _millennia_ and you're acting the good man in tragic position."

"It's like you don't want the Grimm to be done and over with," James frowned at the accusation. "Haven't we gone over this already? Humanity being culled by the Grimm, like we _animals_, is not a fate I enjoy the reality of."

"Watts, you're human. Faunus and humans share biology that's so close that they're basically the same race! How could you think of this?"

Arthur stared at him. "When my father died, I held in his arms, in a laboratory north of mantle, do you know what my first thought was?"

James's raised a brow. "'If I don't do anything, I will die!' I'd always been praised for my maturity and smarts, James, and back then I had two options."

"Live or die, by any means, and that included using everything there to make it out."

"And you created an amazing puppet that inspired the current project." Ironwood supplied. "… Watts, you didn't…"

"The puppet _died_ James," the scientist's expression never left its impassive default. "The one thing I loved among all else _died_ and I could do _nothing_ about it _twice_."

"Arthur I…"

"No," the thinner man rose a hand. "I am done with the mortality of mankind, Faunus included, and I am sick of _losing_."

"…" James looked down in thought. "If I could get a Grimm to you, will it help alleviate the gravity of some of your ideas?"

Yellow eyes went wide and blinked in confusion. "James you can't possibly-"

"No, you're right," the taller man turned and they looked out the window of the Atlas Academy. "I too am tired of losing, Arthur. Every time I see another personnel not come back, I have to look their family in the eye and _lie_."

"I have to lie about their service, I'm not there on the front line all the time. I have to do my best to remember each and every one of our people who go out there and might not come back."

"I'm also tired of losing but I can't just throw away what separates us from the Grimm."

The two looked at each other before James nodded.

"I'll be deploying tomorrow," the headmaster said, much to Watts's shock.

"Wait, you?!"

"Of course," James smiled.

"I may not always be on the battlefield but even I can wrangle up a couple of Grimm as a show of goodwill."

The scientist sighed but grinned.

"One of these days that's going to get you killed."

[br]

He stared at the blueprints while resting his head on his fist.

"It'd be the perfect immortality while making use of _everything_ Atlas has to offer…"

It was a rather ingenious idea, make use of those not benefitting Atlas at all. They were dying anyway! Why not make use and, as a side benefit, give them a life where they never have to worry about anything?

No hunger, no need to release waste, no need for life's annoying necessities, and they could live for however long they liked.

Families wouldn't be broken if they made this program public and accepted volunteers. He could imagine a good amount of people would love to be effective immortal while getting a wage they could spend on their families.

No broken families, they could be put back together again and again so _why_?

He tapped on the table once before getting up and moving through the laboratory James had lent him to pursue his Grimm plan.

He looked at an orb-shaped piece of hardware and picked it up.

"Hmmm," he turned it in his hand before getting an idea.

Perhaps an experiment is in order to show James just how great of a scientist he actually is.


End file.
